Razer Wolverine Ultimate Review

The Wolverine Ultimate is Razer ‘s flagship restrainer, a combination personal computer and Xbox One gamepad with six programmable rear buttons, a swappable focus embroider and analogue sticks, and even Razer Chroma colored lighting. It ‘s besides sturdy, comfortable, and responsive. But it ‘s entirely available wired, which makes its $ 159.99 price arduous to swallow when the Astro Gaming C40 TR and Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 are both wireless and have more program options for just an extra $ 20 .

Design

The Wolverine Ultimate is surely one of the most overbuilt controllers we ‘ve seen in some clock time. It shares the lapp general profile as the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller, but with even more extra components attached. The front holds the standard dual analogue sticks in an beginning Xbox arrangement, along with a direction pad, A/B/X/Y face buttons, menu and option buttons, and a light-up scout button. The top jury that holds the Guide button is bordered by a leach of programmable, motley LEDs .
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Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better bribe decisions. ( Read our editorial mission. ) The analogue sticks and direction pad are obliterable, with alternate caps and pads included with the gamepad. You can replace either stick with a improbable convex gratuity or a concave tip of the lapp stature. There ‘s entirely one alternate stick of each, though, so you ca n’t replace both sticks with grandiloquent or concave ones ; you have to mix and match. The traditional plus-shaped direction diggings can besides be replaced by a round bunch of four distinguish directional buttons .
A trapezoidal outcropping sits on the bottom edge of the gamepad, between the grips. The formative ball is similar to the headset adapter the first Xbox One controllers used, before the earphone jack became universal. It holds headset volume and mic muffle buttons, along with a reprogramming button for setting inputs to the extra triggers on the back, and a profile button that lets you switch between two restrainer profiles. A 3.5mm headset jacklight sits on the buttocks of the trapezoid.
While the Astro C40 has two excess programmable buttons on the bottom and the Xbox Elite Controller Series Two has four, the Wolverine Ultimate beats them both with six extra buttons you can broadcast with any input you like. The peak border of the accountant holds the standard correct and left bumpers and analogue triggers, along with trigger lock switches that shorten the trip pulls for quicker shooting. Small M1 and M2 triggers sit between the chief triggers, and are joined by M3, M4, M5, and M6 triggers located in a two-by-two placement on the back of the gamepad between the grips .
Any of the extra buttons can be assigned with your choice of digital input. You can besides set them to Agile or Focus functions, which decrease or increase analogue stick sensitivity on the fly so you can aim more precisely or turn around faster .

Connectivity and Customization

The Wolverine Ultimate connects to your personal computer or Xbox One through the include 10-foot fabric-wrapped USB-to-micro-USB cable. The cable features a quick-breakaway association exchangeable to the Xbox 360 ‘s wired controllers, which disconnects the cable easily in case it gets caught on anything ( or if anyone trips over it ). The gamepad only supports a wired connection, which is a reasonably big disadvantage compared with the Astro C40 and Xbox Elite Wireless Controller, both of which work both wired and wirelessly ( the C40 with its own USB arranger for PCs and PS4s, and the Elite over Bluetooth or Xbox Wireless ). A wired connection provides the lowest input signal reaction time, but the appliance of radio connectivity should be standard at this price .
You can customize the Wolverine Ultimate through the Razer Wolverine for Xbox app on the Xbox One or Windows 10. Yes, the Windows 10 interpretation of the app is called Razer Wolverine for Xbox. Curiously, the gamepad ca n’t be directly programmed through the Razer Synapse software on personal computer, even though that software is used to customize closely every early Razer peripheral you connect to your computer. This means that, while the Wolverine Ultimate ‘s unhorse is technically Razer Chroma, you ca n’t directly sync it to your Razer headset, keyboard, or mouse through Razer Synapse, and have to manually control how its colors change .

The Razer Wolverine for Xbox app is identical intelligibly an Xbox One app promptly ported to Windows 10, because you ca n’t control it with your mouse or keyboard. You need to use the Wolverine to navigate all menus and change all settings, which is slenderly inconvenient. Customization on Windows is besides much less full-bodied than with the Astro C40 or Xbox Elite Series 2 gamepads. You can platform the six buttons on the back with any input, or set any of them to Focus ( reduce sensitivity on either analogue stick ) or Agile ( increase sensitivity on either analogue joint ), but you ca n’t reprogram the standard face buttons or triggers .
You can fine-tune the Focus and Agile functions to increase or decrease analogue stick sensitivity to your tastes, but you ca n’t set the analogue sticks ‘ sensitivity curves on their own, or adjust the analogue triggers ‘ sensitivity. You can besides individually tweak the strength of each of the accountant ‘s four shaking motors ( two in the grips, two near the triggers ). As customization options go, it feels a bit anemic when the Astro C40 and Xbox Elite Series 2 let you reprogram the confront buttons and triggers, and set sensitivity curves for the analogue sticks .

Performance

Playing Forza Horizon 4 on the Wolverine feels comfortable and claim, with the analogue sticks offering batch of responsiveness and smooth motion. The analogue triggers work well with acceleration and brake, and the accountant ‘s shaking function comes through with plenty of detail in the rumble. Because the controls center on the triggers and left analogue stay, I did n’t use the raise buttons while playing .

The Wolverine Ultimate besides performs well when playing Gears 5. The analogue sticks again feel placid and accurate, and using the buttocks buttons to activate Focus and Agile modes provides some tactical profit when aiming. The steering pad works well ; I used the four-button circular embroider for weapon switch, and it was responsive .
For 2D and retro-style games, the Wolverine Ultimate can take a bit of getting used to. The four-button circular pad ‘s individual buttons are a act besides stiff to precisely control directions in platformers, while the plus-shaped directional embroider feels awkwardly shallow. The face buttons besides feel shallow, which makes them quite responsive but loses some of the meet, near-mechanical feel you get from buttons with longer throws. I finally got used to the commission slog and grimace buttons for platforming in Guacamelee 2 and dungeon exploring in Moonlighter, but neither aspect feels quite american samoa solid as the Xbox Elite Series 2 or Astro C40 ‘s direction pads and face buttons .

Too Pricey to Keep the Cable

The Razer Wolverine Ultimate is a high-end wired accountant with a price to match. It has six extra programmable buttons, on-the-fly sensitivity adaptation for the analogue sticks, and even customizable light. however, it ‘s besides $ 160, when for $ 20 more you can get the Astro C40 TR or Xbox Elite Series 2, both of which offer your choice of wired or wireless gameplay and even more scheduling options. The on-controller headset adjustments are a nice reach, and the Wolverine features more extra buttons than the other gamepads, but neither view is worth the loss of radio connectivity, particularly when the focus pad does n’t feel closely angstrom good .
If you ‘re all right with a wire and want at least a few back buttons to play with, the $ 30 PowerA Enhanced Wired Controller is available for a divide of the price of any of these high-end gamepads. The $ 50 8Bitdo SN30 Pro+ is besides a very hard choice that costs far less than the Wolverine Ultimate, and while it does n’t work with the Xbox One, it has wireless connectivity with PCs and the Nintendo Switch, a well as plenty of customization options .